Kansas lawmakers are stepping up their efforts to attract the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, proposing to have the professional football team develop a plan to use state bonds to finance the construction of a new stadium in Kansas.
Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson said in a statement Tuesday that the state Legislature will consider the proposal during a special session scheduled to convene June 18. They asked the Chiefs to “comment” on the plan in a May 23 letter to Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt, which both leaders released Tuesday.
Their actions come at the same time that a new Kansas nonprofit called Scoop and Score is launching a campaign to lure the Chiefs from Missouri to Kansas. The group started an online petition to the state Legislature, sent text messages saying the Chiefs “deserve a permanent home in Kansas” and registered 20 lobbyists to represent it in the state Legislature, including a former House speaker and one of the state’s most prominent contract lobbyists.
Kansas officials saw an opportunity in early April after voters on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area steadfastly rejected an extension of a local sales tax that would be used to maintain the complex that houses the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, home of professional baseball’s Kansas City Royals.
“Your insight and expertise will be invaluable in shaping the success of this project,” Hawkins and Masterson said in the letter. “Your organization’s stature and experience in professional sports will help deepen our understanding and ensure this effort is aligned with the interests of all involved stakeholders.”
Lobbyists who registered to represent Scoop and Score included Kansas City-area businessman Ron Rickman Jr., who served as speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives from 2017 to 2022. His former chief legislative staff, Paje Lesnar, also registered and was listed as a founder of the group when it filed articles of incorporation with the state on May 13.
Hunt told reporters in April that the Chiefs would take a “broader look” at the team’s future home after the Missouri vote, and the Chiefs wanted to use some of the local sales tax revenue to pay for an $800 million renovation of Arrowhead.
The plan backed by Hawkins, Masterson and other members of the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature would pay off the bonds for the new stadium with sales and liquor tax revenues from designated areas around the stadium, similar to how Kansas and Kansas City officials funded the construction of NASCAR’s Kansas Speedway and an adjacent shopping and entertainment district.
“We are ready to make the Kansas City Chiefs even stronger,” Hawkins and Masterson said in the letter. “This will also be a win for Kansas taxpayers and a game-changer for our state’s economy.”
Lawmakers had been advancing a similar proposal to build new stadiums in Kansas for both the Chiefs and Royals before adjourning their annual session on May 1, but the plan did not come up for a vote. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly called a special session to consider broad tax cuts after vetoing three previous tax proposals, but lawmakers can consider anything they want.
Previous proposals to fund the stadium have faced opposition from Americans for Prosperity Kansas, an influential Republican group that advocates for small government and low taxes and has long opposed the use of such bonds. Critics argue that using bonds for large projects means the state is picking economic winners and losers, rather than the free market.
